Published: June 20 2008, 11:43 AM | no comments
by Steve Romero

This week I attended the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) Sloan School of Management Summer Session in Cambridge for a full week of immersion into the subject of how to generate business value from IT. What a treat!  

Day 1 was focused on IT Governance and Business Operating Models, so you know I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was able to spend some time talking to Peter Weill, the current Godfather of IT Governance and my hero, who addressed the group. Since joining CA, I've been lucky to have the opportunity to work with Peter on a couple of IT Investment Portfolio Management webcasts. 

I learned a lot from listening to the comments and questions from the IT and business executives in the audience. The opportunity to interact with such a large and diverse group of executives was my primary reason for attending. Their experiences, insights and challenges are critical to help me stay in touch with the day-to-day machinations of IT. I need to stay current on the issues of the day so that I can understand and articulate the relevant benefits of IT Governance.

Your experiences, insights and challenges are just as valuable to me for the same reasons I listed above. As always, I invite you to share them with me.  

More blogs to come on my experience at MIT. 

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Published: June 17 2008, 11:39 AM | 2 Comment(s)
by Steve Romero

I just returned from a trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil where I was invited to speak about IT Governance at the CIAB FEBRABAN 2008 Conference. FEBRABAN is the Federation of Brazilian Banks and their annual CIAB conference is a monumental affair.

I had never been to Brazil, I don't speak any Portuguese and I found getting a Brazilian travel visa to be incredibly time-consuming. I had a Monday night flight arriving mid-morning Tuesday, flying out Wednesday. To make matters more challenging, the trip was wedged between two weeks of single-city trips to Canada and the East Coast and a full week at the MIT Campus in Cambridge (I am writing this on the flight to Boston).

Fortunately, my hosts followed through on their promise to make the most of my time in Brazil. After a quick shower upon my arrival Tuesday morning, I spent the afternoon talking about IT Governance with about 40 of the local sales folks. They appreciated the insights and treated me to amazing Brazilian Bar-B-Q at the best Churascaria in Sao Paolo. The dinner was spectacular, made even more memorable by the evening's conversation during which I learned about the Brazilian banking industry.

My colleagues spoke of the unbelievable triple-digit inflation that took place in the 1990s. Prices changed daily! Supermarkets ceased the practice of price-labeling, leaving shoppers to learn the cost upon checkout. A loaf of bread in the morning could cost less than the same loaf purchased in the afternoon. Banks offered their customers overnight investment products. Overnight! Consider the information systems required to accommodate such wild financial circumstances. Brazilian banks didn't simply consider them, they developed and implemented them.

The outcome was an incredibly complex set of technology-based financial systems they find themselves untangling, dismantling and restructuring today. The banking industry in Brazil is considered to have the country's most advanced IT. Their reputation is such that non-banking industry players attend the conference, ensured of leading-edge insights.

Even after such a build-up I was not disappointed when I walked onto the exhibition floor. All of the major players were there. I've attended the largest technology events in the world and I was still impressed. Some of the exhibits were two stories, and as ours, most had adjoining meeting rooms and even coffee bars and kitchenettes providing a constant flow of Brazilian delicacies.

This impressive display erased my last few remnants of travel-induced lethargy. I was excited and ready for my panel session, which was held in a fully appointed auditorium adjoining the exhibit floor.

I was the last to speak and surprisingly, the only one to entirely focus on the subject of IT Governance. I started by contradicting the first speaker who had said IT Governance was not an exciting subject. By the time I took the stage, I was raring to go and completely sincere when I told the large crowd how exciting I find the subject.

The panel fielded a few questions and we adjourned. I was left yearning for more time to engage with this group in such a great setting. As people filed out, the moderator took me aside to say how much he enjoyed my presentation.  He asked if I would visit his company to present to the organization. I told him it was a bit of a commute, but if he could work out the details with our local team, I would love to.

I later learned the CIO for this company was in the audience, nodding her head in agreement during my presentation. She manages an annual IT budget of $1B. Yes, billion with a B. Turns out the panel moderator was her boss. They both see the importance of successful IT Governance and they want more information and insights. I can't wait to get back to Brazil to visit them.

Despite facing a 90-minute traffic-jammed drive to the airport and 17-hour journey home, I left the conference once again energized by the power and promise of IT Governance.

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Published: June 05 2008, 09:20 AM | no comments
by Steve Romero

This is the second blog inspired by a comment Rodney Sculthorpe made to my blog entitled "Who owns IT Governance, the Business or IT?" The first was entitled "How do you convince Executive Management of the merits of ITG?" In that post, I mentioned that in order to build support for ITG, you need to articulate and give evidence of the existing problems that ITG can address-an important point that deserves further exploration.   

If an organization is unaware of looming problems, then IT Governance may be perceived merely as a solution looking for a problem. In such an environment, forward-thinking types like Rodney are doomed to the frustration born of working with management in an environment where you have to wait until their butts are on fire before you can convince them to buy a bucket of water. (I couldn't resist using that analogy. I coined it recently while I was on a roll in one of my Australia meetings and then quickly apologized for my language--which I have edited for this post. The group dismissed my apology as unnecessary and recorded my quote for future use.  They also made me an honorary Aussie.)

To sell ITG, you need to find the problems and identify the pain points of your organization. This should not be difficult to do. Once you identify this pain, you need an adequate understanding of IT Governance--in its entirety--to propose an appropriate solution.

I say "adequate" understanding because, if you have read my previous posts, you know I contend that IT Governance is widely misunderstood. Many enterprises think it is just governance, risk and compliance (GRC) or just project and portfolio management (PPM) or just ITIL® and address only those subsets of the discipline. The unique problems you are facing will be solved by a subset of IT Governance, as opposed to requiring a comprehensive IT Governance framework. You need to identify what specific aspect of IT Governance addresses your problem(s).

This means you are starting small, which is a good thing. I have used this cliché countless times--you have to eat this elephant one bite at a time. Establishing and institutionalizing a reasoned and rationale IT Governance framework and its associated mechanisms is a lengthy journey, requiring audacity, courage, resilience and perseverance. It requires executive sponsorship from the CIO and other business leaders.

Most organizations are not likely to have that level of executive sponsorship out of the gate. Therefore, your first step is to solve a problem using a subset of IT Governance and deliver something valuable to the organization. This becomes the catalyst for the succeeding steps. This approach prevents you from biting off more than you can chew.  You learn from each phase, and improve your approach and results with each iteration.

Good luck. Let me know how it goes and if I can help.

As an aside, I am always on the hunt for clichés and analogies that I can use to drive home ITG.  If you have any favorites, I'd love to hear them.  

ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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